The next morning when the masters woke up, Crane was nowhere to be found. There was no training for the day in order to accommodate for Mrs. Fan's frail heart, (As a precaution, Shifu and Crane had explained), so the masters were free to look around for any sign of their friend. It turned out that Crane and his mother had been having a long talk in the kitchen since the early hours of morning. The masters caught the tail end of a conversation concerning silk factories and fireworks right before they came in interrupting everything.

"You're up early," Po noted as his friends went to sit down at the table.

"Mom always gets up early," Crane explained. "I figured I'd get up with her so we could talk a little more."

"I used to work as a healer in our old village, so I'd get up at all hours," Mrs. Fan explained. "I can run on 3 hours of sleep every day. But I definitely prefer a full night's rest."

"I had a lot of trouble getting up early when I first came here," Po said sheepishly as he started on breakfast. "Shifu used to punish me so hard when I wouldn't get out of bed."

"You know, I've never understood that," Mantis admitted. "You used to work at the noodle shop with your dad from probably the second you were able to hold a spoon and yet somehow getting up early is an issue for you."

"It's easier to get out of bed when you can smell food," Po admitted. "Dad would always get up early and start the noodles and that would wake me up. So when I came up here and started sleeping in the barracks with you guys, it kind of threw me off. Except of course for my first day here. I couldn't really sleep all that much on my first night."

As he continued cooking, Mrs. Fan turned to Viper and said, "I was thinking, Viper, that maybe you and I could go to one of those lovely cafes later this morning and try to get to know each other a little better. It might be a good way to break the ice."

"That sounds like a good idea to me," Viper replied as she went to go refill the tea kettle that Mrs. Fan had left on the stove. "Maybe we can even go window shopping while we're down there."

"Window shopping?" Mrs. Fan repeated.

"Yeah. Just browsing all the local shops to see what's new. It gives me good ideas for festival outfits."

"You should see her lotus clip collection," Monkey said with a little laugh. "I swear she has one from every province we've fought in."

Viper rolled her eyes. "I only have 12," she remarked. "And they're only for special occasions. The ones I have on now are from my mother."

"Is your mother dead?" Mrs. Fan asked with a subtle frown crossing her face.

"No. But when I first started ribbon dancing, she gave me these before my first performance, and I haven't stopped wearing them since."

"Aww! I didn't know that!" Po admitted.

"Well, now you know."

Po finished up breakfast and began to hand it out to everyone at the table. As they began to dig in, Master Shifu and Mei-Ling entered the kitchen, having smelled the aroma from the Sacred Hall of Warriors where they had been hanging out. Mrs. Fan became a little quiet as the masters took over talking and began to discuss what they would do for the day and also any other topic that happened to spring up. (Such as Po almost getting smacked through the wall  by Tigress when she found out that he had eaten all the tofu dumplings, thinking everyone had eaten already). Once everyone had finished eating, Viper offered to go window shopping with Mrs. Fan while they waited for their food to digest. Afterwards they could head over to the café and talk further. Mrs. Fan agreed to the idea and the two were soon gone from the Jade Palace grounds, leaving the rest of the masters to debate further about what they would do for the day.

"Mei-Ling and I will clean up from breakfast," Shifu offered. "We can find things to do just the two of us."

"That's fine," Po said. He looked over at Crane and Mantis and asked, "You guys want to go souvenir shopping?" he asked. "There's supposed to be an event at Mrs. Tang's and I want to check it out!"

"Maybe you should hold off until Viper and Mrs. Fan finish window shopping," Tigress suggested. "They might think you're following them."

"Oh, right. Good point."

"I'll be at the peach tree if anyone wants to come and hang out," Crane offered.

"Maybe for a second," Monkey said. "I wanted to hang out by the river and splash some of the passing travelers."

"I already told Quan-Ying I'd hang out with her today," Mantis added. "But I'm sure Monkey will be good company for a while."

He looked over at Tigress and Po and began to open his mouth to say something, but Monkey cut him off with a sharp look.

"I'll come hang out," Tigress piped up suddenly. "I could use some time to meditate."

"Really?" Crane asked in surprise.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Well, you guys have fun with that," Po told them. "I'm gonna' help dad out for a little bit and then go to Mrs. Tang's later."

"Will you be back for lunch?" Monkey asked.

"Of course!"

With their plans set in motion, the masters scattered and headed out of the kitchen. Monkey and Tigress headed over to the peach tree to hang out while Crane joined them a few minutes later after grabbing his art supplies. Tigress sat against the peach tree and began to meditate while Crane began to draw the scenery off in the distance and Monkey looked down at all the people in the village.

"I wonder if you could see them from here," he wondered aloud. "I see Po. He's at the bottom of the stairs trying to catch his breath."

"If they're window shopping, they might be standing still in the crowd," Tigress offered as a potentially helpful hint.

Monkey did his best to scan the crowd down below, but he had trouble with picking out where Viper and Mrs. Fan were. Crane glanced up from his artwork and decided to try his wing at finding his mother and girlfriend. Within a minute, he said, "Found them. They're by Mr. Lu's dress shop."

Monkey took a second look over in that direction and spotted two tiny figures admiring the fabric from the shop. "Oh! I see!" he exclaimed. "Good eye, Crane."

"Thanks."

Monkey watched them for a second while also catching a glimpse of Po running into his dad's noodle shop just a few feet away from the girls. He had given them a quick wave before disappearing inside. Mrs. Fan and Viper finished looking at all of the dresses and began moving next door to a flower shop where Mrs. Fan immediately began to have a long conversation with the man running the shop. Viper in the meantime just stood there, eventually moving to sniff one of the lotus flowers when Mrs. Fan kept talking to the florist.

"They're spending a lot of time at the flower shop," Monkey observed to Crane.

"Eh, that makes sense. Mom knows her herbs, so she's probably asking about the quality and uses for the flowers. And if Mr. Murai doesn't know something about just one herb, she'll probably give him a lecture for a half hour about how disappointing it is that he doesn't truly know his flowers."

Monkey winced. "Glad I'm not him then," he commented. He continued to look out at the valley and take in the scenery while Crane and Tigress chilled and did their own solo activities. Eventually, Monkey looked down and said, "Okay, I've seen several people pass by that river and I'm starting to get antsy. I'll leave you two to your solitude and go splash some people."

"Have fun," Crane called over.

Monkey waved goodbye and proceeded to dash away from the peach tree and down to the village and towards the river, leaving Tigress and Crane alone in complete silence for several minutes. Neither of them seemed to be too into talking since Tigress continued to meditate and Crane concentrated about getting all the landscape he could see into his picture. They were there for a good hour before Crane started to get a wing cramp from drawing and decided to take a quick break to rest. Tigress, hearing that he had stopped drawing, peeked an eye open to take a look at what he had done.

"That's good," she remarked, looking at all the shadows and details that had gone into the painting. "It looks like you flew there in person to go draw it."

"Thanks, Tigress," Crane said with a little modest flush.

Tigress sat up and stretched her arms out to get rid of any possible cramps. She then took a deep relaxing breath before standing up and looking down at the valley. She couldn't see Mrs. Fan or Viper anywhere, so they were probably in the café at this point. Or just somewhere out of her eyesight.

"It's kind of weird to be up here just the two of us," Crane noted, albeit a bit timidly. "It's been a while."

"A long while," Tigress acknowledged. "It was definitely an interesting time for both of us."

"Yeah, definitely."   The two fell silent for a second before Crane hesitantly added, "You know, I could tell from the beginning it wasn't going to work. It was just....strange."

"To be fair, I didn't really know much about that kind of stuff," Tigress admitted. "And I think I was more flattered than...you know..."

"...attracted?" Crane finished.

"Yeah."  A pause. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I wasn't really crushed at the end if it's any consolation. Besides, I kind of already knew what you were like when you had an attraction to someone."

Tigress turned a dark shade of red out of sheer embarrassment. "Thanks, again, for not telling him about that," she said. "And also for threatening Monkey when he found out."

"No problem."

Tigress observed the activity in the valley for another moment before looking back at Crane who had begun to pick up his paint brush again. "When did you even start to like Viper?" she asked.

"It was more recently," Crane admitted as he turned back to his paints. "Like...just a few months before Po came here."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It was kind of sudden. Like I remember waking up one morning and going through all our usual training stuff and for some reason I couldn't get my mind off of her. Like there was some sudden aura that she gave off that drew me in or something. And that was just the beginning."

Tigress went to go sit down by the peach tree and resume her meditation when Crane asked, "How about you? When did you start liking Po?"

Tigress opened an eye to look at him. She didn't seem too happy with the question, but Crane pressed on anyway. "I'm just curious," he protested innocently. "Besides, you asked about me."

Tigress frowned, but she knew Crane had a point. "I don't know," she admitted. "It came on so gradually, I didn't even notice until right before Kai showed up."

"Oh. Wow."

The two stayed quiet for a little while doing their own activities. Crane then turned back around and said, "I know Po would kill me for saying this, buuuuut....did you want to know how long he's had a crush on you?"

Tigress opened her eyes again. "Tempting," she told him. "But I think I'll pass. Why, do you know how long Viper's liked you?"

"No, actually. She's never mentioned it."

"Then why don't we both be patient on that?"

Crane shrugged and turned back around to his picture. They remained at the peach tree for the remainder of the morning in almost complete silence, not even bothering to disturb the other. Eventually they were alerted to the fact that it was about lunchtime from the smell that came from the various restaurants  down below. That and when Crane glanced down at the villagers below, he saw Po heading back up the stairs as fast as his legs would allow him with Monkey slowly gaining on him from a few yards away.

"I guess I should start cleaning up before lunch," Crane remarked as he started to put his art supplies away.

"Any sign of Viper or your mother?" Tigress asked, opening her eyes.

"No, but I see Po."

"Where on the stairs?"

"The bottom?"

"I think you can wait a few minutes before cleaning up."

Crane glanced down at Po and then back at his painting. He took to cleaning up most of the brushes, keeping one or two out so that he could finish up a few finishing brush strokes. Tigress closed her eyes again and continued to meditate until Crane glanced back down at the stairs almost fifteen minutes later and said Po was nearing the top. (Very slowly). They both finally got up and headed over towards the main gates where they found Monkey chatting to Po who was wheezing and huffing on the top step.

"That one traveler was a lot tougher than he looked!" Monkey admitted with a hearty laugh. "I'm shocked he didn't have swords on him! He threw a whole rock at me! Fortunately his wife got him to calm down and leave before things got ugly."

"Not every...one...finds your...sense of...humor...funny...." Po told the master in between pants.

"How was everyone's morning?" Crane asked them as he and Tigress got close.

"Fun!" Monkey said. "Apart from this one guy who couldn't take a joke."

"I got...a new...collectible!" Po told them, holding out a new kung fu master action figure he had picked up from the souvenir shop. "It's-"

"-Master Irai in a thunder pound stance?" Tigress finished, seeing that he was still struggling to catch his breath.

Po nodded and gulped in more air before managing to straighten himself up. "Okay," he huffed. "Now onto lunch!" He then proceeded to head into the kitchen with his friends following behind him. The Dragon Warrior then began to make lunch, asking after Shifu and Mei-Ling and whether or not they'd be at lunch.

"No idea," Crane told him. "They left when we headed over to the peach tree, so we haven't seen them."

"Well, I'll make some for them anyway just in case."

Po made some soup for lunch with fried tofu and some tea for everyone to share while his friends had a small chat about what they might do for the afternoon. Crane expected that he might be spending more time with his mom and also possibly Viper depending on what his mom wanted to do. Tigress planned to train and Monkey wanted to hang out with Mantis once he came back from his date with Quan-Ying. In the middle of the conversation however, the kitchen doors slammed open and Mantis stormed into the room and headed over to his normal seat. 

"Hey, buddy. You okay?" Monkey asked worriedly.

"I don't want to talk about it," Mantis snapped.

Po looked over at his friend and exchanged a knowing look with Monkey. "Another bad date?" he asked.

"All I said was that I'd rather sail on a boat for a week than climb up and down a three day stretch of natural landmarks from the old Shaolin temple!" Mantis huffed. "And then she complained that I never take her feelings into consideration which I do! She can fly!! If I get tired I can't fly! Then she got mad because I said that and told me that I'll never be good at seeing things her way and....yeah, I needed a break."

"Um, flying gets tiring too, you know, Mantis," Crane reminded him.

"Yeah, but it's not like she can't walk! She just doesn't like to! I only have one option!"

"Let me guess," Monkey said. "You two broke up again."

Mantis frowned and just banged his head on the table with a frustrated yell.

"You know what I think your problem is," Tigress told him firmly. "You two are terrible at communicating and talking things out."

Mantis gave her a look. "I'm terrible at communicating?!" he yelled. "All I do is listen to her! Constantly! I just ask for a little ear every once in a while too!"

"Listening and understanding are two different things."

"Oh yeah, sure. This from a woman who refuses to talk to us if she so much as gets just a little insulted. No wonder Po hasn't asked you to go on a date yet."

The entire room fell into a dead silence as Mantis' words left an echo in everyone's ear. Mantis immediately covered his mouth and came to his senses for a split second after realizing what he had just said, but he couldn't take back the nasty words. Tigress just gave him a look and sharply got up from the table and left the room.

"Way to go, Mantis," Crane scolded.

"I...didn't mean it like that!" Mantis promised. "I just....uuuuuuuaaaaggh!!!"

"We get it. It's been a bad day," Po finished as he served everyone their lunch. "But you didn't have to take it out on Tigress. She was just trying to help."

He then put the pan back on the stove and left the kitchen to go after the master. Crane followed suit, saying that he wanted to take a second look to see if Viper and his mom were coming back any time soon. Fortunately for Po, he had walked out fast enough to catch Tigress going in the direction of the barracks. (Which was a bit strange, but Po didn't think anything of it at the moment). The master followed after his friend and eventually managed to catch up to her just as she got to her room.

"Tigress! Wait hold on!" Po exclaimed quickly.

Tigress paused outside her bedroom door and glanced at him. "Po, you don't need to come running after me every single time there's a dispute," she scolded. "I'm more than perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"I know, but I just didn't want you think-"

"I know Mantis didn't mean it," Tigress assured him. "I just didn't feel like putting up with him. That's all."

She went to walk into her room and turned around to shut the doors behind her. "Besides," she added. "You and I already know the reason why we're not dating is because I have more important things to do. Not because you can't stand me."

And she slammed the doors shut with a final, "I'll be back once Mantis is calmer."

Po opened his mouth to protest, but Tigress, foreseeing this, told him a final time to just head back to the kitchen and eat. The panda obliged, albeit reluctantly, and soon left the barracks in silence. Once she was sure he was gone, Tigress just sighed irritably and sat on her bed in a meditating position. However, the quiet only lasted for a few minutes before the door to the barracks opened and the master heard Viper slither down the hallway. A few seconds later, Tigress' door was wide open.

"Do you mind if I hang out here for a minute?" she asked with an exhausted expression on her face.

"How'd you know I was in here?"

"Crane said Po was going to check on you, but I didn't hear him when I came in, so I figured you were alone."

Tigress sighed, but made room on her bed for her friend. "I take it the morning wasn't quite what you planned?" she asked knowingly.

"It started off nice," Viper admitted. "But Crane's mom is very practical and...well, I'll just say judgey. The things I took interest in she thought were a bit shallow I think because when we got to the café, she started telling this long story all about how she wanted to be a famous dancer as a child but then there was a war and she realized that all the pretty things she owned were absolutely worthless and how she gave up everything to be a doctor and better the community and how her practical skills saved Crane's father from a disastrous break-up and marriage and how he clung onto this old fancy hat from his youth that some girl got for him and that she was so grateful when this housefire destroyed it because it helped him move through the grieving process of his gold-digging girlfriend.....

"And then she asked about my family and I told her about how I was born to two kung fu masters and that I took up dancing to try and make my father smile and then she started asking me a ton of questions about my parents and their marriage and my sisters and their careers and if they were married and to whom, what were their personalities like....So I told her that my one sister was a florist and my other sister did kung fu with me until she married and how my other sister decided to be an element dancer and then my other sister was a seamstress and that my youngest sister was doing a backpacking tour and wasn't always easy to reach, and then she started asking if Lee was any good at herbs and did she know how to make them into proper medicine-actually, she got into a whole argument with Mr. Murai because he forgot the name of one plant-"

"Crane mentioned that," Tigress interrupted. "We saw that you guys were standing there for a while, so he made mention of it."

Viper sighed. "She seems like such a nice lady. I like her, I really do," she admitted. "But I don't think she likes me very much. I get the impression she thinks I'm just like Crane's father's ex-girlfriend, Lanying. Her name was dropped a LOT in the conversation."

"I take it this lady owned a lot of trinkets?"

"Not just that. She was obsessed with being rich and owning a lot of stuff. She wanted a personal rickshaw and driver. She wanted a house in the city that was away from the bustle. She wanted to own ten thousand hanfus. And so on so forth. Apparently she would change if she got so much as one drop of dirt on herself. Or so Mrs. Fan ranted."

Viper sighed deeply and just laid on the bed with a tired expression. Tigress wasn't quite sure what to do to make her friend feel better so she didn't say anything for a while.

"You're lucky," Viper grumbled. "Mr. Ping already likes you."

Tigress frowned but said nothing. Catching the icy silence, Viper glanced up and asked, "What's swallowing you?"

"Nothing."

"Don't tell me nothing. I know that look. Not to mention how weird you and Po have been ever since we came back from the panda village. What's going on?"

"You have your own set of problems. I don't need to hound you with mine. I can handle them."

Viper frowned. "By taking everything out on the training hall and not talking to us when someone says something touchy?" she asked.

Tigress said nothing.

"There's nothing wrong with a little rant, trust me," Viper assured her.

"Then why not tell Crane all your troubles?"

"I'd like to get everything out of my system before I talk to him about his mother. They're very close and the last thing I want to do is start throwing accusations around and driving a wedge between them. I'd hate it if someone did it to me and my parents. They don't always get things, but they still love me just the same."  She looked up. "Is that why you're not telling Po what's swallowing you?" she asked.

"I tell him stuff," Tigress retaliated sharply. "I don't need him following me everywhere though! I'm not five!"

"Po knows that you sometimes need a good rant. Or punch," Viper said. "Especially when you're in a testy mood."

"I know. You'd think he'd learn after the amount of times I've pummeled him in training."

"Yeah, but that's because he cares. And honestly, he's the only one brave enough to do it every single time you're in a mood. Aside from Shifu obviously."

Tigress sighed and just leaned against the wall, still not saying anything.

"You know, if you don't want people to hound you for dating, then why don't you just do it privately? Crane and I did that for a while-"

"It has nothing to do with that!!!!" Tigress snapped. She stopped for a second to regain her composure and then took a little breath. "That's not the problem...." she repeated, calmer this time. "I already thought about that some time ago.....It's more....I'm....worried."

"Worried?"

"I know it sounds stupid, but...it feels nice to be in love, but I don't know anything about relationships or being romantic, or....whatever else couples do. I can barely talk to Shifu normally, how am I supposed to build anything with Po? What if I get too stressed with all the stuff going on and I can't handle the pressure of being in a relationship? Or what if Po just decides he'd rather be with someone else who's...I don't know....better than me?"

Viper gave her a sympathetic look. "Oh, I see...." she said. She slithered closer to the master and patted her on the shoulder. "Tigress, I promise you have nothing to worry about. Po likes you for the way you are, angry fits and punching people's lights out and all. He's been here for eight years; he's pretty aware of the fact that you take a while to adjust to things. Or people. And he doesn't seem to mind all that much; he's just glad when he can finally get you to open up."

"And what happens if I get too open?"

"That's not going to change anything. We've known you for twice as long as Po and we're not tired of you." Viper smirked. "We all know you're a big softie under that tough exterior."

"If I don't let Po call me that, I'm certainly not going to let you call me that," Tigress warned.

"See? Relationships are built on respect and trust and good communication. Yeah, we all mess up from time to time, but that's perfectly normal. What matters is that you put forth the effort to try and make something work."

Tigress thought about that for a moment before taking another breath. "I guess you're right..." she said. "I just...I guess I'm too much of a perfectionist....."

Viper patted her knee out of sympathy. "You'll get the hang of it," she promised. "What matters is that you two love each other and you want to build on that. Don't let the little things get you all hung up-"

A sudden loud crash and a noise that sounded almost like an explosion caught the girls' attention and they quickly got up and left the barracks in the direction of the commotion. It didn't take them too long to find it as they soon happened upon a group of bandits who were in the process of attacking the kitchen.

"What on earth-?!" Viper exclaimed, glancing up at the massive blimp.

"I have never seen someone attack the kitchen," Tigress admitted with the same look of confusion plastered on her face. But the two soon reached the group and began their own attack. Tigress had noticed that there were more bandits above them in the blimp, but she figured (correctly) that they wouldn't be a bother because they had to make sure the blimp didn't fly anywhere it wasn't supposed to. The master noticed some of the bandits sneaking around the back and alerted Viper to it. The girls quickly then set up a blockade, Tigress launching Viper to whip the bandits and keep them from ambushing the back and then blocking the front herself. A few of the bandits were a little intimidated just by looking at her, but the rest had no problem coming towards her with jagged swords and shields. One threw a throwing star at her direction which was more like a bunch of knives stuck together in a star formation. Tigress was quick to dodge this as well, but the bandits took advantage of the brief distraction and charged into the kitchen, forcing Tigress to follow after them and grab hold of their collars and yank them back out into the open air.

By this point, the rest of the masters had heard the commotion and had come outside to help the girls defend the kitchen. (Which was a weird first for them). At first, the masters were able to quickly get the upper hand on the attacking bandits. But after some time, Tigress quickly screamed, "Gunpowder!" which caused the masters to scramble out of the way as a glass ball was dropped in their direction. A loud explosion rang out and disoriented the group, shaking the kitchen and causing Mrs. Fan to shriek in alarm and call out for Crane. As the masters regained focus, one of the bandits quickly grabbed one of the Furious Five and gagged them while leaping back onto a rope that led to the blimp. It was difficult to see through the smoky haze that was left behind, but as Tigress attempted to reach the blimp and failed, it cleared enough for the masters to realize which one of them was being carried up and away.

"MONKEY!!!!!" Po cried.